Leclerc still ‘confident’ Ferrari can perform in Canadian Grand Prix

Ferrari suffered a shock double elimination in Qualifying and both drivers have shared their thoughts on what went wrong and their expectations for today’s race.

The Canadian Grand Prix is later today but for Ferrari, Round 9 of the 2024 season hasn’t gone quite how they would have liked. Last time out in Monaco, Ferrari achieved their second victory of the year. Carlos Sainz won in Melbourne and Charles Leclerc took his maiden Monaco victory.

However, the momentum from victory in Monaco hasn’t continued into the Montreal weekend. The first two free practice sessions on Friday saw mixed conditions, whilst FP3 saw dry running. But for Ferrari both drivers were struggling throughout with lack of pace and no grip.

Unfortunately for the Scuderia, these issues persisted in Qualifying. As a result, both Leclerc and Sainz were out of Q2, failing to reach the top 10 for today’s Grand Prix. This makes 2024 the second consecutive year that Leclerc has failed to reach Q3 in Canada, and it’s the first time since Belgium 2021 that both Ferraris are out in Q2.

Reflecting on the issues, Leclerc admitted the biggest problem is with the pace of the SF-24 whilst Sainz said he found it “very tough” due to the lack of grip.

Persisting issues for Ferrari

Speaking to Formula 1, Leclerc admitted that this weekend, Ferrari were not matching the pace of those ahead and that it’s “strange” given the strong performance they gave in Monaco. The Monegasque said:

“Just slow. Slow all day. Similar issues also to this morning. I had like a sensor issue, which was very annoying. Then the management of the car as well. The management of the session as well wasn’t the best I think, so all in all, it’s been a tough session.

“I would say that the biggest problem is the pace, we are so slow in the dry at the moment, we don’t understand. It’s a bit strange to go from a really, really good weekend in Monaco in terms of pace, and get here and be on the back foot. We’ll look into it.”

We’ve got some work ahead of us tomorrow ??#CanadianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/xheIX1ikqv

— Scuderia Ferrari HP (@ScuderiaFerrari) June 8, 2024

Sainz echoed Leclerc’s frustrations, but touched on Ferrari’s decision to put on the new set of soft tyres at the beginning of Q2 rather than for the second half. Speaking to Sky Sports F1 about this, Sainz said:

“Just a lack of grip. I think if obviously we would have done everything perfect with the running of the new tyre at the end of Q2 and not at the beginning, we would have also maybe potentially had a cleaner last corner, maybe Q3 was a possibility today.

“But the reality is that it was too tight at every point during today and it meant that as soon as you don’t do things perfect, you’re in Q2, which is not where Ferrari want to be.”

Sainz continued, adding the reason behind Ferrari’s decision. The Spaniard admitted that due to the weather forecast, Ferrari made the choice they did:

“We saw the shower coming and we saw that potentially the track might be better at the beginning than at the second half. Anyway, long story short, normally at any other track, running the used at the end we would have still made it to Q3 and we would be fighting for pole, but when you don’t do these kind of details perfect, when you don’t have a fast car, that’s when you get caught out.”

Leclerc briefly spoke about the tyre situation too, but made it clear the team will “review everything”, saying:

“We will review everything. Obviously not happy to be out in Q2 and we will look into it. I think the biggest issue was that we were so slow. Every time it was dry conditions, we were nowhere this weekend and we’ve got to look into it.”

Race expectations for the Scuderia

Looking ahead to the Grand Prix today, Leclerc stated that he still feels “confident” whilst Sainz feels all Ferrari can do it “give it [their] best shot”. As reported by Formula 1, Leclerc said:

“I still feel confident that tomorrow [in] the race we can put everything together and have a better result. However, until now we haven’t proved it on the dry, so let’s see what are the conditions and we’ll try to maximise the result.

“I think that’s the main thing in those races like that. We just need to make sure that we take the maximum points available. This weekend we haven’t been great, we’ll focus on that after the weekend, to understand where we lacked. For now, the best thing we can do is focus on tomorrow.”

Sainz shared the optimism, hoping that the team’s issues are predominantly qualifying-related:

“I hope it’s a quali thing and we’re going to be more competitive in the race, although we saw last year how tough it is to overtake. We’ll give it our best shot.”

The Canadian Grand Prix is later today with George Russell on pole position. With Leclerc and Sainz in P11 and P12 respectively, it’s going to be a tough race for the Ferrari duo.

Headline image: X @ScuderiaFerrari